Mother saves toddler from python in bed

By Jo Shoebridge and Margaret Burin

A north coast snake handler was called to catch a python at a Lismore property on the weekend, after a woman had removed it from her two-year-old daughter's arm. Tex Tillis says the snake, which was found wrapped around the girl as she lay in bed, was probably just seeking warmth.

In the early hours of Saturday morning Tess Guthrie woke to find a 185cm snake starting to coil around her daughter's arm.

When she tried to remove it, the non-venomous snake started to constrict and bit the little girl three times.

Tex Tillis was called to remove the snake from the home, as the toddler was treated in hospital.

He says the python only struck when the mother tried to remove it.

"She missed the head by about six inches, so, whenever a snake is grabbed the only it can conclude is that anything that can grab it can also eat it, so it panicked and it started to constrict the arm at that point and started to bite the baby," he says.

"It wasn't actually trying to consumer the child, the child was two years old and it's quite a small python, it would've been just wrapped around there for warmth as they do wrap themselves around stove pipes and things like that."

He says it's most likely the snake was trying to get warm.

"Pythons have, under the lower lip, they have a series of pits which evolution has equipped them for seeing the world in terms of infrared, so a snake wandering around that room would've seen two blobs of heat on the bed and often a snake will often just go for a little bit of heat."

Tex has commended Tess for the way she handled the snake, saying she acted calmly and quickly.

"Another aspect of her wonderful character is that she had no malice whatsoever towards the snake, she had no desire to see the snake destroyed or taken 100km away which would be certain death to the snake."